For 230 years, one of the remarkable and enduring strengths of the American character has been a relentless determination to make our nation great. Hundreds of thousands of American soldiers have given their lives to defend our ideals, not just for our sake, but to hold out a beacon for the world to follow. For a dozen generations, parents have worked
and sacrificed to leave behind a better life for their children and a better society for their countrymen. The values we cherish -- faith, family, freedom, opportunity, responsibility, and hard work -- have instilled in us a drive to do better and a profound sense of duty to country and to one another.
It is time to summon the strength of America's character once again. Today, the nation faces challenges as great as any we have ever faced: Radical extremists are doing everything they can to destroy our way of life. The war on terror will last a very long time, as the London bombings this summer reminded us. The United States faces competitors in China and India that, if we fail to act, have the potential to eclipse our
economic might. Americans can no longer count on the bedrock promise that by working hard and taking responsibility, they can rise as high as their God-given potential. Parents are determined as ever to give their children lives of meaning and purpose, and to teach them right from wrong, but they face more obstacles than ever. And at a time when we should be coming together across party lines to confront these threats, our politics are polarized, our leaders are divisive, and our political system is badly broken.
It is time to be straight with the American people. We don't need false promises, petty fights, and partisan bickering. American politics must find a higher purpose, because America has a higher calling: to be the engine of opportunity and freedom, at home and throughout the world.
Over the coming year, New Democrats will do everything we can to help our party and country set forth the values and principles we stand for. We will seek out new answers. We will enlist Americans in the cause of building a safer, stronger, and richer nation. And we will be guided by our core beliefs:
We believe that the Sept. 11 attacks changed America forever, and
defeating terrorism is the supreme military and moral mission of our time. To win the war on terror, America needs more troops and more friends. We believe that running the country deep into debt is economically dangerous and morally wrong. Economic and military might go hand in hand, and victory can only be assured when all Americans, including our political leaders, not just soldiers and taxpayers, sacrifice.
We believe that dependence on foreign oil is the greatest threat to America's national and economic security -- and the most avoidable.
We believe American ingenuity, entrepreneurialism, and hard work can beat any competitor, but only if we make sure that hard work is rewarded, and that Americans are given the tools to rise to the challenge.
We believe the promise of American life is opportunity -- the chance for all to achieve their potential. America should offer every citizen the basic bargain that built the nation: Do right by your country and your family, and you can rise as far as your dreams and hard work can take you.
We believe that governments and corporations don't raise children -- parents do. A nation that puts rights ahead of responsibilities, and profits ahead of values, will soon lose them all.
We believe the purpose of politics is to solve people's problems, not to serve
special interests. America is a nation of progress, not stalemate; pragmatism, not party; answers, not ideology. We can't afford a political system that protects privilege and the status quo and ignores the needs of ordinary people.
We believe that ideas and results matter, and that no political party deserves to win unless it lays out a plan for how America can win.
Above all, We believe in summoning Americans to a cause that is greater
than any party -- to unite our nation in an unstoppable quest to defeat terror, save the American dream, and put Washington to work solving people's problems.
By acting on these beliefs, America can meet the four central challenges of the next decade:
Putting security first. Less than four years ago, the attacks of Sept. 11 united Americans like no event since Pearl Harbor. For a brief, shining moment,
country -- not party -- was all that mattered. The entire world -- save the terrorists and their sympathizers -- was on America's side.
Four years later, we have won some important victories against terror and tyranny, in Afghanistan and in Iraq. But the duty we owe to the victims of Sept. 11 -- and to the cause of freedom -- has not been fulfilled. Today, our politics are more petty and partisan
than ever. The Bush administration used a moment of national crisis to advance its own political agenda. Some on both sides have come to hate the other side, and they forget to focus on the real enemy. Around the world, the administration's blunders have given aid and comfort to our enemies, turning the unity of support for America after Sept. 11 into a near-unity of distrust and opposition. Worst of all, our leaders have failed to arm us economically and militarily for a war that could go on for decades.
We believe America's security challenge is quite clear: to preserve our freedom and our way of life, we need to prevail in Iraq and in the greater war on terror.
First, we need more troops. This year, the U.S. Army is failing to meet its
recruiting goals. In Iraq, our forces are stretched so thin that soldiers have served extended tours of duty, and reservists have carried a load far beyond what they signed up for.
We challenge Washington to increase America's Armed Forces by 100,000 troops. Iraq isn't the last war we'll have to fight, and we need a bigger army. We need to challenge more Americans to serve, and give them the
means to do so.
Our nation's top colleges must no longer be allowed to shut their doors to military recruiters. It is wrong to shield America's elites from the duties of freedom.
Second, we need to stop feeding the very terrorists we need to defeat. We must eliminate one of America's greatest security vulnerabilities -- our dependence on foreign oil -- by taking advantage of the greatest economic opportunity of this decade: the creation of energy-efficient technologies. "By doing nothing to lower U.S. oil consumption, we are financing both sides in the war on terrorism," Thomas L. Friedman wrote in The New York Times. "We are financing the U.S. military with our tax dollars, and we are financing the jihadists -- the Saudi, Sudanese, and Iranian
mosques and charities that support them -- through our gasoline purchases."
The Bush administration has done nothing since 9/11 to increase America's security by
reducing our energy dependence. As a result, we're letting terrorists convince the Arab
street that all America cares about is oil. At the same time, we're letting our Japanese competitors beat us in the energy innovation race, which offers the best chance of creating high-wage jobs.
To bolster the war against terrorism, we need a national goal of reducing our dependence on foreign oil by 25 percent by 2025. To bolster our economy in the next decade the way the information technology revolution did in the 1990s, we challenge Washington to make America the world's leading exporter of energy-efficient products, instead of the world's leading importer of foreign oil. We should, for example, create a booming market for hybrid cars by converting the government's motor vehicle fleet to hybrid engines by 2010 and offering significant tax credits to individuals and companies who purchase hybrids. Policies like those would serve as powerful encouragement to our ailing automobile industry to become competitive in the production of energy-efficient cars.
Third, America needs more friends. We should never be afraid to do whatever is necessary to protect ourselves or defend our interests. But it's not in our interest to lose allies or respect around the world. Economically and militarily,
we can't afford to go it alone forever in the war on terror. More importantly, America will be safer when we have more allies we can count on and fewer enemies determined to do us harm. Even as we fortify our military leadership, we must also strengthen our moral
leadership. If America fulfills its mission as a beacon of opportunity and freedom for people all over the world, we will take away the terrorists' favorite weapon: sowing hatred for our way of life.
Fourth, we need more growth and less debt. When it comes to national
defense, we must spend whatever it takes, for as long as it takes, to win. George W. Bush's tax cuts are undermining our ability to do that. Never before has a president cut taxes in wartime. If we're going to remain the world's greatest superpower, we can't
spend money we don't have and give tax cuts we can't afford to those who don't need them.
Fifth, we need more patriotism and less politics. President Bush missed a
historic opportunity to change the tone of American politics after Sept. 11. Yet even though he failed to rise to that challenge, Americans are still hungry to put country ahead of partisanship once again. Winning the war on terror is too important for either side to spend all its time pointing fingers at the other. We're Americans first, and we should
approach this war the way the American people do: They don't care which party
wins, as long as America wins.
We need a strategy for long-term economic growth, not short-term
political gain.
America was built on a basic bargain: Anyone willing to work hard and do right deserves the chance to get ahead. That bargain built the great middle class and made us the richest country on Earth, with the biggest dreams.
We can't let those dreams slip away. Today, the hopes of middle-class families face threats from every direction. This administration has made the middle class pay a higher share of the federal tax burden, so the wealthiest can pay less. With gas prices and health costs soaring, the cost of getting by has gone way up -- and thanks to soaring college tuition, millions of families can no longer afford the cost of getting ahead.
When it comes to winning the worldwide competition for jobs and economic growth, our leaders are letting the middle class down.
Here is Washington's current game plan for making America competitive: Make it harder for Americans to afford the acquisition of new skills, while our competitors in China and
India do everything they can to make sure their people get the education they need to
compete. Refuse to enforce trade laws, allowing our competitors to break them with abandon and undermining support for the trade expansion we need for our economy
to grow. And as a final burden to middle-class aspirations, abandon the fiscal responsibility of the 1990s that sparked the longest economic boom in American history, and instead saddle us with enormous debt -- much of it owed to China, which looms
as our greatest competitor.
The imagination, innovation, and freedom of our people have always been America's greatest comparative advantage. With the challenge from India, China, and others, America has to hold onto and strengthen that advantage. To do so, we need to radically improve the quality of our education and change our investment priorities to drive innovation and create new industries and products. We cannot afford to waste any
of our citizens' talent and potential.
We believe that if government, business, and citizens live up their responsibilities, America will rise to the economic challenge of the coming century.
First, Washington has to do its part by living within its means again. If we
don't restore fiscal responsibility, we cannot maintain our standard of living, our quality of life, or our leadership in the world. Responsibility begins at the top.
We challenge Washington to put its own house in order. It should cut congressional and nondefense staff by 10 percent, reduce federal consultants
by 150,000, cut pork-barrel highway projects by 50 percent, and restore caps on discretionary spending. To revive economic growth, Congress should reimpose strict pay-as-you-go rules for spending and tax cuts.
Second, we need to reform the tax code to promote economic growth, not special privilege; reward work; and make it easier for families to afford college, own a home, and save for retirement.
Private-sector growth is the prerequisite to opportunity for all. Congress should enact tax policies that encourage investment and drive innovation that helps the whole economy grow, not policies that prop up inefficient or dying industries. It should create a binding
Corporate Subsidy Reform Commission with a mandate to cut $30 billion per year in unnecessary subsidies for the next 10 years -- and use the money to invest in innovation and growth. If the U.S. military can close bases it no longer needs, American business can let go of special privileges that retard rather than increase economic growth.
We challenge Washington to enact the family-friendly tax reform
plan proposed by Paul Weinstein of the Progressive Policy Institute. It would eliminate 68 redundant, unnecessary, or special-interest tax breaks. Instead, Americans would receive four simple tax incentives: a $3,000-a-year college tax credit; a universal home mortgage deduction available to people who don't itemize their taxes; an expanded family tax credit for couples with children; and a universal pension that replaces 16 existing IRA-type accounts with a single, portable retirement account for all workers.
Third, we must confront the perfect storm of soaring health care costs,
shrinking access to health insurance, and global competition that is crushing American businesses that do right by their workers. We need to use information technology to reduce inefficiency, fragmentation, and waste in the health care system. We can both lower long-term health care costs and spur innovation in an area of American economic
strength by launching a concentrated effort to find cures for the most debilitating
and costly diseases, like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. Even delaying the onset of those diseases would reduce the burden on Medicare and Medicaid dramatically.
Fourth, we must challenge Americans in all walks of life to do their part
to keep America in the winner's circle. Corporate leaders have a responsibility to look out for the interests of workers and stockholders, not just their own. We need to transform our high schools so that a diploma means something, and so that every willing young person can attend and finish college. We must finish the job of education reform by
challenging teachers, students, and parents to understand that Americans won't learn the most or earn the most unless we work at it the hardest.
Fifth, to enable our economy to grow, we must expand, not restrict, trade. To assure that America can be a winner in the world economy, we must not only lower trade barriers and open new markets overseas, but also rigorously enforce trade laws and
agreements. We must also expand and modernize our trade adjustment efforts to help those who are adversely affected by trade agreements.
Standing up for American values. All the military and economic strength on Earth can't protect a nation that does not also have strong values. Time and again, America has beaten the odds because of bedrock values like faith,
family, country, community, personal responsibility, and hard work.
We need to put those values back at the heart of our society and our government.
Parents need help protecting their children from a culture that forces them to grow up too fast. Americans, young and old, deserve the chance to give something back to their community and country. If we want a society of boundless opportunity, we must challenge all Americans to live up to their personal responsibilities.
After all the talk about family values, it is time for new ideas that value families:
First, we must give parents the tools to stand up for old-fashioned values in
a newfangled world.
We challenge Washington to adopt a uniform ratings system for all
entertainment media. It should ban the marketing of violence and other
inappropriate material and products to children.
Second, we should stand up to those who would steer the country
away from mainstream values. Results, not ideology, should determine how problems are
addressed. If we care about a culture of life, we should support stem cell research that has
the potential to save and transform the lives of millions. We believe in promoting adoption, as well as keeping abortion safe, legal, and rare.
Third, we should give Americans, young and old, every chance to lift America up by giving something back to their country. Since Sept. 11, Americans have waited in vain for their nation's leaders to ask more of them. It is time we enlist all Americans in a call to service.
We need a voluntary system of universal service that offers every young American the
opportunity and responsibility to serve his or her country in a military or civilian capacity -- and we encourage colleges to include service as a criterion for admission. All
Americans have a role to play in keeping their country safe -- and they deserve to know what it is. Young people have much to offer the country as teachers, mentors, first responders. As our population grows older, more seniors have the time and desire
to help -- and more seniors are in need of help themselves.
Restoring democracy by reforming a broken system. Let's face it -- Washington isn't doing its job, which is to offer real answers to the real problems of real people. Too many leaders look out for themselves and for those at the
top, while the rest of America gets stuck with the bill.
We need to draw the line between public service and private gain. It's time to fix a system that is broken and corrupt.
Washington ought to close the revolving door, so that members of Congress and administration officials can't become lobbyists as soon as they've left office. We should require lobbyists to disclose regularly whom they've met with and what favors they've asked for. We should get rid of tax loopholes for lobbying expenses. Both parties should
abide by the same standard: The public interest must come first.
We need to make sure that congressional districts promote real competition, not incumbent protection. In 2004, even though the American electorate was almost
evenly divided, only one-in-eight members of Congress won by less than 10 percentage points. When congressional districts aren't competitive, the U.S. House of Representatives cannot play its historic role as the legislative body most responsive to the people.
To restore that vital component of our democracy, we challenge Washington to ban partisan gerrymandering and require states to offer voters
a real choice instead.
Finally, we need to continuously reinvent government to keep up with the times. Just as we enact new programs and discard old ones to meet the challenges of today and tomorrow, we must constantly modernize and reform the big ongoing systems of
government, such as primary and secondary education and entitlements for senior citizens, to make them more effective in dealing with new economic, social, and demographic realities. Wherever possible, we should replace bureaucratic government
with empowering and performance-based government -- and we should make performance, not size, the main criterion for judging government programs.
At our best, we have always been willing to put country before party. If we want to meet the great challenges of the next decade, we must leave behind the acrimony of the last
decade, and unite to put our country first once again.
Right now, young men and women are putting their lives on the line in Iraq and Afghanistan, defending the America we revere. They didn't go off to fight America's enemies halfway around the globe so that we can fight with each other here at home.
As it has so many times, history is testing us. But if we bring that same spirit to the challenges we face, America will win again.
